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Chenier is, above all, the tenor's show and Domingo just does not possess either the heft or the squillo or the ease of delivery at the top displayed by Bonisolli, Del Monaco and Corelli that are required by this role or the passion and sweetness of Carerras in the other four Chenier CD sets I have. The ending is especially demanding with its high tessitura, presenting a challenging test for Domingo. His difficulties, while not necessarily interfering with his delivery or constricting his notes, are evident in the exacting spots where his voice seems to struggle to sing out over the orchestra as it should and which the others toss off con slancio.

The four Italian baritones in the other sets are all very fine Gerards but none has the lovely sound of Sherrill Milnes in this set. And Renata Scotto here actually rivals Tebaldi in interpretive skill and array of expression with some gorgeous pianissimos, but I must take exception to her (and Maria Gulegina in the Capriccio set with Bonisolli) singing the "Son Io" at the opera's close when it is marked to be SPOKEN thereby imparting greater dramatic impact and emphasis in contrast to the rest of the opera which is sung, as is so evident in "Traviata" where Violetta's speaking the letter clearly makes it a more poignant moment or in "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" with the Empress' wild, hysterical, conflicted and very lengthy and rapid emotional speech, Ach! Weh Mir...", omitted by non native German speakers as far too difficult to deliver!.

There are some operas in which the opera lovers look for the best. This is one of those. Opera lovers want an excellent Andrea Chénier, but also a superb Maddalena, to hear and hear again the magnificent La mamma morta. But the role of Gérard is also key in this play. Well, this is, with out doubt, one of the best versions of this opera. Domingo, very young (the recording is from 1976) sounds superb. Renatta Scotto also. Milnes as Gérard as well. This is not an easy-to-find version, I don't understand why, but I was very surprised to find it through Amazon. It's an ADD recording.I Have another version, with Chailly conducting, and Pavarotti, Caballé and Nucci. This is another excellent version. If I had to choose, I would be difficult.I defenetely recommend to download the Callas aria of la mamma morta of 1955. It's unbeatable. Becarful the versions. Not all of the discs have the same quality. I personally have this one: [...]

Andrea Chénier has always been one of those odd creations that I have ignored, unfairly. Poor Umberto Giordano just didn't have that touch of Apollo to his gift. But he composed this fine and fascinating opera in the face of the fact that he should never have composed it at all. I say that because Andrea Chénier, like Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur and Puccini's Manon Lescaut, is a story totally unsuited to the Italian Verisimo style of composition. There is something overly sentimental and uber-romantic about Verismo compositions. Reality indeed! Stories set in the 18th century are more suited neoclassical style, as Stravinsky understood with his Rake's Progress. I wonder what Verdi would have made of the libretti to Chénier, Lecouvreur and Manon.

Yet, here it is. The first point of interest for me is how much Chénier reminds me of Puccini's La Bohème, which premiered one year after Giordano's triumph. Yet, Chénier came a four years after Puccini's Manon Lescaut, which sounds less like Bohème than does Andrea Chénier! Who influenced whom more?! I expect it was a case of Giordano hearing Lescaut and Puccini hearing Chénier and things got all mixed up. In the end Puccini had the creative, and cunning, theatrical genius not possessed by the more insecure and less flamboyant Giordano. Puccini went on to compose La Bohème and Tosca, Giordano did not.

Largely Chénier is chock full of beautiful music. There are some wonderful choral sections, especially in Act 1. And the scoring and harmonic inventiveness was in some ways ground-breaking, in Italian opera anyway, though Verdi had paved the way for all of it.

This is another one of those cocktail hour operas, later on in the evening, when one has shut down the comparative and ruthlessly analytical part of the neocortex and simply listen to the beautiful music. I cannot honestly say that I remember any of the tunes, but as they flow past I loved them.

In this recording it is fortunate that James Levine is in charge. He made his finest recordings in London in the 1970s and early 1980s for RCA, EMI and CBS (Sony). After that he became such a superstar at the Met I think he lost his ginger to too much comfort and adulation. He never made any greater recordings than those like this Andrea Chénier. His Otello, also for RCA, was his last great set.

Renata Scotto and Sherrill Milnes were his stars in that Otello, as they are here in this Chénier, rounded off by Plácido Domingo at the end of his glorious 'salad days' as Chénier. Milnes and Domingo are superb throughout this recording. Scotto is magnificent. At the end of Act III her cries of "André! André! Riverderio!" as her lover is led off to the gallows from the courtroom are shocking in their intensity. There is nothing phony, ala Callas, in Scotto's delivery of these gut-wrenching words. Her Act IV is even more eviscerating. I can't imagine a finer Maddalena than this, and haven't heard one on record. Scotto emits two rather shrieky high notes in her last scene (and for a women about to have her head chopped off a bit of hysteria is not out of order), otherwise hers is a monumentally moving performance.

The plum on the pudding of this recording are the minor roles, all wonderfully sung and characterized. The ladies are particularly ear-catching. I sat up, put down my fork and went to the libretto sitting by the cd player to find out WHO was singing at one point, something I rarely do. It was Maria Ewing's Bersi singing her Act II remonstrance to L'Incrédible (the slimy spy, weaselly sung by Michel Sénéchal). Ewing's lines "Temer? Perchè?" Her voice is so vibrant with life and revolution and gorgeous into the bargain.Then later on Gwendolyn Killebrew delivers a beautiful performance of Madalon's little scene in the church. And Jean Kraft's Mme Coigny is also a standout. Formidable ladies all! There isn't a weak singer in this large cast, beginning with the one-line Major-domo at the very start of the opera, strongly sung by a hitherto, and since, bass-baritone by the name of Nigel Beavan.

James Levine, like Georg Solti, KNEW excellent singing when they heard it, and cast their recordings, for the most part, accordingly.

If Puccini hadn't been hanging around Giordano may have become a much more famous composer. His facility was just as competent as Puccini's but I think he was cowed by the other man's big persona and public popularity. We dig our own graves.

If you are curious about this opera then I recommend this recording. Levine conducted this kind of thing better than anyone.This set contains a complete libretto and English translation and a very interesting essay on Giordano's life and the real poet Chénier. Illuminating material you rarely get in rereleases of these great older recordings.

. . . and it's not all that recent! But record companies aren't falling over one another to record this piece, which, to my mind, is as theatrically effective as, say, Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" or "Bellini's "Sonnambula." In fact, I like it better than "Manon Lescaut." It has three juicy roles, and a host of colorful minor ones, and at the time this was made -- in 1978 -- Domingo, Milnes, and Scotto were all in prime form, and James Levine brings to the score the same color and energy that he brought to his recording of "Otello" with these same principal singers a year earlier. Domingo can't quite match the plangency that Gigli brought to the role around 1940, and he sounds more like a man-of-action than a dreamy poet, but the voice is in great condition, and Scotto and Milnes are in their element. There is quite a lot of concerted music, and the modern recording -- pre-digital but clear and warm -- presents it much more effectively than the old 1940-ish sound. There's a famous live recording with Callas and del Monaco out there, from around 1955, and Callas was a wonderful Maddalena, but the sound can't begin to match this one. It has a tad more refinement and power than Corelli's early-1960's version. I haven't heard Decca's studio Del Monaco/Tebaldi one. So -- if you like well-constructed verismo operas, don't hesitate. This is a good one, and the opera is strong enough to justify owning more than one version!